By Staff
T.R. Miller Lady Tigers senior Jasmine Sanford became the program's sixth player to reach 1,000 career points Thursday when she knocked in 31 against Northgate (Ga.) at the Oxford Tournament.
Sanford entered the game needing 15 points to hit 1,000. She reached that plateau in the third quarter of T.R. Miller's 53-48 win.
Sanford scored 135 points as a freshman, 250 as a sophomore, 429 as a junior and 202 so far this season.
Sanford not only surpassed 1,000 points Thursday, but she also moved past Valerie Etheridge into fifth place on the Lady Tigers career scoring list with 1,016 points. Etheridge had 1,015.
Deanna Jackson is the all-time career scoring lead for T.R. Miller with 2,398 points followed by Ashley Samuel with 2,197, Felicia Jackson with 1,911 and Joy McCorvey at 1,805 (also through Thursday's action).
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T.R. Miller and W.S. Neal will continue to be Area roommates in next year's Class 4A volleyball alignment. Both schools were assigned to Area 2 along with Andalusia.
Both schools have competed in Class 3A Area 1 the last two years with Clarke County.
There had been speculation both schools might have been shipped west, but both Thomasville Monroe County along with Escambia County were assigned to 4A Area 1.
It will also be the same alignment in softball, as T.R. Miller, W.S. Neal and Andalusia have been assigned to Class 4A Area 2.
T.R. Miller and W.S. Neal are currently competing in Class 3A Area 1 with Clarke County and Straughn.
Softball is the first spring sport where area realignment has been announced. Football region and basketball area realignments have already been announced.
The new Area realignments bring up the argument that many of these areas need to be consolidated.
For example in volleyball, Class 1A has three Areas that contain only two teams. Class 2A, 3A, and 5A also have at least one Area with only two teams.
With the state using a format that takes the top two teams from area tournaments to the regional, teams in two-team areas are guaranteed a free pass to the regional. The only thing the area tournament does is seed the teams for the regional.
Instead of 16 Areas that send 32 teams to four eight-team regionals, how about a format with eight consolidated Areas that send only the champion on to the regional. The regional would still contain its current eight teams.